Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Larry Charles directs. Anthony Hardwick behind the camera. Erran Baron Cohen scores. Craig Alpert cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United Kingdom, United States of America. Dialogue in Polish, Romanian, Hebrew, Armenian, English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

• 184 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.
• 2Grossed $263M — a 14.6× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.
• 3Released 20 years ago.
• 4Dialogue crosses 5 languages: Polish, Romanian, Hebrew, Armenian, English.
• 5International production across 2 countries: United Kingdom, United States of America.
• 6Part of the "Borat Moviefilms Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
• 7Directed by Larry Charles, shot by Anthony Hardwick. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
• 8Original score by Erran Baron Cohen. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
• 9Editor Craig Alpert shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
• 10Sacha Baron Cohen and Ken Davitian and Luenell carry the top of the cast.
• 11Marketing tagline: "Come to Kazakhstan, it's nice!".
• 12IMDB entry: tt0443453 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
• 13Classified under 18 themes, including "journalist", "california", "prostitute", "rodeo".
• 14Released under 31 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography

Anthony Hardwick

Original score

Erran Baron Cohen

Editing

Craig Alpert

Costume design

Jason Alper

VFX supervisor

Scott M. Davids

Sound

Brandon Proctor

Runtime

84 min · 1h 24m

Aspect ratio (typical)

1.37:1 (Academy)

Status

Released

Budget

$18,000,000

Box office

$262,552,893

Return

1459% of budget

Original language

EN

Certification (US)

R

IMDB

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006) ↗

Rotten Tomatoes

90% 🍅 Fresh

Metacritic

89/100

IMDB rating

7.4/10 · 472,912 votes

MPAA

R

Part of

Borat Moviefilms Collection

A collection of movies that follow the misadventures of a fictitious Kazakh journalist, named Borat Sagdiyev, who travels through the United States to make documentaries, which feature real-life interactions with unsuspecting Americans.

• 
  Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

  2006 · this one
• 
  Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

  2020

Also by

Larry Charles

• 
  Curb Your Enthusiasm

  2000 · ★ 8.1
• 
  New Girl

  2011 · ★ 7.4
• 
  Religulous

  2008 · ★ 7.0
• 
  The Dictator

  2012 · ★ 6.3
• 
  A Little Inappropriate

  2008 · ★ 6.0
• 
  Larry Charles' Dangerous World of Comedy

  2019 · ★ 6.0

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper Wallpaper Wallpaper Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

• 

  ▶
  Trailer

  Trailer

Community reviews

What people are saying

• CinemaSerf2025-02-09
  ★ 7/10

  If you are remotely politically correct then this isn’t for you. It plays crudely and entertainingly to just about every stereotype known to mankind and rather potently sends up the population of the United States. “Borat” is a local television presenter in Kazakhstan who has decided to go to the US in A and meet Pamela Anderson. Dragging his director “Azamat” (Ken Davitian) along, they take a circuitous route to New York and once he’s realised that the hotel elevator isn’t actually his room, they are on their way. He’s a friendly chap who wants to say hello, shake hands and kiss just about everyone he meets. Needless to say, this elicits a variety of unfriendly responses and so he buys an old ice cream van with his pal and decides to take a tour of the country ending up in California. Along the way he meets cowboys, evangelicals, gays, etiquette experts and even manages some naked wrestling, but will he meet and get his gal? It’s perhaps a little unfair to say this is anti-American specifically. I reckon if you travelled into the interior of many large countries where your mum, your dog and your canary might all the the same creature whilst “Duelling Banjos” is on repeat on the juke box, you’d get the same sort of insular responses, but somehow this seems exaggerated by some of the most ignorant and stupid people that he encounters en route. The condescension in which he’s viewed by some of the population, the rudeness and violence he encounters as well as the humorous hypocrisies don’t really show his hosts in a good light at any stage of his drive. Of course, he’s an obnoxious man whose anti-Semitic views, causal approach to violent sex and, indeed, his clumsy attempts at English all reinforce an Eastern European stereotype too, but that country had decades of Soviet occupation to blame. What’s the excuse of those in Texas whose intellect is only marginally greater than their cows. It’s excessive at times and the joke does start to wear a bit thin, but there’s something quite thought provoking about Sasha Baron Cohen’s character here that shines a critical light at jingoism and nationalism amusingly but poignantly. Perhaps he ought to get himself a job as a fact checker in the White House now?

  Read full review ↓

Production companies

Who made it

• 

  20th Century Fox

  US

• EV

  Everyman Pictures

  US

• FO

  Four by Two

  GB

• 

  Talkback

  GB

• 

  Channel 4 Television

  GB

• DU

  Dune Entertainment

  US

• ON

  One America

  US

Key crew

• Executive ProducerDan Mazer
• ProducerSacha Baron Cohen
• ProducerJay Roach
• Boom OperatorJon Klein
• Costume DesignJason Alper
• Executive ProducerMonica Levinson
• Art DirectionDavid Maturana
• EditorCraig Alpert
• Music EditorRichard Henderson
• Sound Effects EditorMichael Payne
• Supervising Sound EditorAndrew DeCristofaro
• Sound Re-Recording MixerBrandon Proctor
• Visual Effects SupervisorScott M. Davids
• Sound Effects EditorKerry Carmean-Williams
• Sound Re-Recording MixerLora Hirschberg
• Sound Effects EditorDavid Esparza
• EditorJames Thomas
• EditorPeter Teschner
• CastingAllison Jones
• Production Sound MixerScott Harber
• Unit Production ManagerDavid Siegel
• First Assistant DirectorDavid Siegel

Themes & keywords

What it's about, really

• journalist
• california
• prostitute
• rodeo
• kazakhstan
• demeanor course
• chicken
• driving school
• satire
• mockumentary
• social satire
• antisemitism
• bear
• reporter
• aftercreditsstinger
• duringcreditsstinger
• comedy
• amused

Release history · US

When it landed

• Premiere2006-08-04· Traverse City Film Festival
• Theatrical2006-11-02R

Also known as

International titles

• Borat!US
• BoratUS
• Borat: Aprender Cultura da América para Fazer Benefício Glorioso à Nação do CazaquistãoPT
• BoratES
• Borat - Kazah nép nagy fehér gyermeke menni művelődni AmerikaHU
• 芭乐特：哈萨克青年必修(理)美国文化CN
• 波拉特：为了建设伟大的祖国哈萨克斯坦而学习美国文化CN
• 波叔出城：哈萨克乡下佬去美国搵着数CN
• Borat: Lecciones culturales de América para beneficio de la gloriosa nación de KazajistánES
• Borat - Studio culturale sull'America a beneficio della gloriosa nazione del KazakistanIT
• BoratIT
• BoratHU
• BoratFI
• BoratSV
• Borat - Kulturelle Lernung von Amerika um Benefiz für glorreiche Nation von Kasachstan zu machenDE